Scorpion (MacDonald "Mac" Gargan) Appreciation (2019)

[MajorHoy]

from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 (1965)

First appearing (as just Mac Gargan) in Amazing Spider-Man #19 (December 1964), Gargan becomes The Scorpion in Amazing Spider-Man #20 as part of a plan by Jolly J. Jonah Jameson to capture Spider-Man! (Ooooops!)


and from
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol. 1 No. 9
(September 1983)

[Zeitgeist]

I miss the more classic Scorpion. I don't think he's been quite the same since the whole Nu-Venom thing.

[MajorHoy]

A few pages from Mac's first appearance as The Scorpion in Amazing Spider-Man #20 (January 1965):

[Michael Watkins]

i'm a scorpio. and I was a huge Gargan fan until he became Venom. but I also was hoping that Vin Gonzalez would become the new Scorpion; just to switch things up. Mac just isn't as interesting as he used to be. i even like the movie version of him better (and he didn't do much). the Scorpion suit is pretty cool, though.

[comicscollector]

Scorpion was one the first villains to defeat Spider-Man in the first story he apeared.but yeah after that Scorpion have been more of a B villain with a hostility complex.during the David Michelinie stories in Amazing Spider-Man he got new powers to the Scorpion suit that i thought were interesting.

[MajorHoy]

from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition No. 17 (April 1992)

[Chubistian]

He has my favorite villain debut in the Lee/Ditko era. I love how brutal the fight against Spider-Man is, and how Peter has to go to the limit to finally beat him in a hand to hand combat. No holding back, no artifacts, just a fist fight

[MajorHoy]

i'm a scorpio. and I was a huge Gargan fan until he became Venom...

Speaking of which,

from All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #12 (December 2006)

[jetengine]

Has Gargan ever taken Jameson to court over the mental instability his upgrade gave him ? Because he didnt sign any waiver and Jameson just literally threw money at a random scientist to Genetically modify any poor bastard who answered his ad with the gift of 10,000 dollars if he murders Spiderman.

[Huntsman Spider]

Has Gargan ever taken Jameson to court over the mental instability his upgrade gave him ? Because he didnt sign any waiver and Jameson just literally threw money at a random scientist to Genetically modify any poor bastard who answered his ad with the gift of 10,000 dollars if he murders Spiderman.

He should. It'd be a really great way to have Jameson's chickens come home to roost, continuing from what was seen previously in ASM #11-13 by Nick Spencer.

[Hypestyle]

so what happened to Gargan post-symbiote?

[jetengine]

so what happened to Gargan post-symbiote?

Got an upgrade from Smythe, Spock punched his jaw off. Then got another upgrade from Alchemax and worked as a Merc for them

[Hypestyle]

Got an upgrade from Smythe, Spock punched his jaw off. Then got another upgrade from Alchemax and worked as a Merc for them

uh... okay.. (literally, punched his jaw off? grisly.)

[Huntsman Spider]

uh... okay.. (literally, punched his jaw off? grisly.)

Yeah, seriously. Otto didn't know until then just how much power Peter's body really had, and how much Peter was really holding back in all their fights. And this was the Scorpion, who had been enhanced on multiple occasions to be considerably stronger and tougher than Spider-Man himself. If he could punch that guy's jaw off, imagine what would happen to a normal human being punched like that.

[Mistah K88]

The original Anti Spider-Man, funny how they still managed to make him a legacy villain but still kept him in that specific niche. Something I also find interesting is that it seems that Scorpion would have been a natural evolution of the Spider Slayers... but Scorpy was first!

I remember as a kid in the 90’s animated series he was mutating physically too... but I think they dropped that specific story line (or just ignored it), anyone want to fact check me?

Scorpion was planned for a Spectacular, but unfortunately, all we got from him was a name drop (I wonder how his story would have played out, we knew Miles Warren was already messing with genetics, and Jameson was pissed after Spider-Man's altercation with John. So I can put some things together, but the mechanical parts of the suit [tail] is where I draw a blank [anyone else have any educated guesses?])

I didn’t see enough of the Ultimate animated series to form an opinion on him there, however, I do remember him being a ninja and more of an enemy to Iron Fist... (and for some reason when I think of a ninja named Scorpion, my mind goes straight to Mortal Kombat)

Poor Scorpy was simple bad guy fodder in the most recent animated series...And...well...we don't know how this one came to be...as he just exists.

Back to the comics, Gargan taking Jonah to court would be quite the story to see.